Hanoi Noi Bai International Airport – Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh Tan Son Nhat Domestic Terminal
Pacific Airlines
BL 799
737-4Q8 (VN-A192)
Seat 7B, 1A and 1F
ETD: 1620H
ETA: 1830H
Duration: 2 hrs 10 min



Hanoi – as a city, is awesome. Almost no one speaks English, there are no fast food joints, no giant shopping malls, port holed roads are visibly narrower than HCMC, streets are dirty and lined with street hawkers serving delicious and mouthwatering food… A PERFECT destination, in my opinion. My finger was the best apparatus for communication, JUST POINT!

A large part of the city is still very old with lots of stylish French influence in its architectural façade adorned with beautiful lakes dotted throughout the precinct. What amazed me was also how the Stalinist inspired buildings juxtaposing with their older French hued siblings stood side by side. Since it was winter, the weather was visibly cooler in the region of low 20s and the air very dry. This made it very misty and the traffic smog extremely bad.



Since I was on a history trail, my several must-do tasks included Ba Dinh Square where the body of Ho Chi Minh is preserved in a mausoleum, his home and gardens, his museum, Hoan Kiem Lake where countless artists have been inspired to paint about, and of course, the Old Quarters where Old Hanoi still functions this very day, like they have since the beginning of time with the crumbling buildings seemingly untouched by development.



Another major highlight was the junk cruise in Ha Long Bay, a UNESCO Heritage Site that features hundreds of limestone crops jutting out of very peaceful looking waters. The whole trip took about 10 hours to complete but it was well worth the effort.

Did you know that most Vietnamese cuisine originated here in Hanoi? No? Neither did I…

More about Pacific Airlines… They are by default the 2nd airline in Vietnam. National carrier VN used to have a stake in them but have since relinquished it in favor of QANTAS. Since QF’s entry, they have gone through a re-branding of sorts and their old tagline of “WE FLY LOWER” has been replace by “LET’S ALL FLY!”. Wise choice! Fly low? Skimming the mountain tops? Below 500ft to escape radar coverage? Copywriter must have been high on crack when he coined that “fly low” bit. They presently fly 4 2nd hand 737-400 that used to be from Garuda, Malaysia Airlines and CSA Czech Airlines.

12 December 2007

We arranged a transfer to the airport in a minibus and an English speaking guide was thrown in for good measure. I am glad we had her along because check in proved to be a challenge later on.



Noi Bai International Airport is located some 50 kms from Hanoi, but getting there took us almost an hour. The first half of the journey required us to meander through narrow streets in Hanoi and the suburbs yielded no better traffic flow with the roads choked full of motorbikes weaving about crazily complete with blaring horns from all sides.



By international standards, this airport is small. Although modern looking, it looked like it was constructed in a haste to show Vietnam’s relentless race of development and hence the building aesthetically lacked taste and general warmth. I understand that funding for a new airport project has already been secured and I wonder how that would look like.



Domestic check in is confined to the northern end of the terminal that consist of only Pacific Airlines and Vietnam Airlines. The former, being operated on a LCC model, had only one counter open and the sole male check in staff worked from a lap top.

I plonked all 8 passports on the counter much to his bewilderment, “Hello, window seats please.”

There was no reply from him. However, all passports were arranged according to couples and I asked my Vietnamese guide to explain to him that the seats needed to be arranged that manner. Additionally, I asked for a “FRAGILE” sticker to be put on my luggage because of the porcelain bowls I bought earlier that morning.

“You want wha…..?”

Since my words were lost in translation, I flipped the e-ticket around and drew an example of how the sticker would look like, presuming that the check in person would understand. As soon as he saw my drawing, he looked at my guide, mumbled in Vietnamese and went back to tapping the keyboard of his lappie…

“Sir, he say not airline problem.”
“What do you mean “not airline problem”? Please tell him it is!”

As the guide tried to explain some more, he promptly ignored her and went about tagging our bags. I decided not to let this ruin my holiday and just let it go. However, when we got our boarding passes, our group got assigned seats that were all over the plane and worse still, we were not sitting with our partners as requested. I ended up with my dad at 7B and 7A respectively.

As I started to fume, we just assured ourselves that we could simply swap seats once we got onboard so it was not biggie, really. I was weighing the pros and cons about bringing up this episode of bad customer service to a superior but I figured I would need another round of translation, thus it was simply not worth the trouble. I wanted to board the plane to Ho Chi Minh City with a peace of mind. So, breathe deep breadths…. Deep breadths…..



Domestic gates are confined to both the southern and northern end of the terminal, leaving the middle section to the international ones. We were departing from Gate 1 so this required a trek across the entire floor, affording us a chance to explore this drab, grey and cold looking airport.



Security was choked full of a large group of Chinese people who spoke neither English nor Vietnamese, and security personnel that spoke neither Mandarin nor English. Since there was no middle ground of communication, bottles of mineral water and sweetened drinks were confiscated one after another escalating into a minor riot of sorts. It was becoming noisier and noisier by the minute even people in the line were shouting and the others who had crossed over and since they were hollering in a dialect I couldn’t comprehend, I could only assume it was due to the annoyance of confiscated items. I was tempted to intervene and translate BUT the men seemed perturbed beyond reasoning.



Once airside, it yielded very little facilities other than a Vietnam Airlines Lounge, a café and a shop paddling over-priced souvenirs and tit-bits. There was nothing much to do but to sit and wait while observing the goings-on and the comical antics of this large group of Chinese men who seem as if they were flying for the first time. The all held boarding passes for…. Drum roll….. Pacific Airlines flight BL799 bound for Ho Chi Minh City.

The melee at the security line was dying down with the last few members of that group gulping down their drinks under the watchful eyes of the Gestapo-like security men in green, complete with the sky high peak caps and shiny badges. Suddenly that area looked like a communist torture chamber for capitalists’ sympathizers.

“Don’t want to admit you had a BIG MAC?! Drink 50 bottles of green tea NOW! NOW!”


The tarmac was devoid of any other aircraft except for a partially hidden Air France 747-400 and a Vietnam Airlines A320.

1610H: The general boarding call came and the expected rush for the gate followed. Some people were seen running, as if for their lives. Since our seats were assigned, there was really no purpose to rush like that. Although we entered an air-bridge, we exited halfway and walked down the stairs to the tarmac where 2 waiting buses stood.




Depending on your row, the boarding passes were stamped with “FRONT DOOR” and “REAR DOOR”. Obviously not everyone knew what they meant as passengers were sent back and forth at the foot of the stairs leading up to the aircraft’s both doors by the ground staff stationed there. At least there was some attempt at making the boarding process organized but perhaps some foreign language speakers need to be employed.


One final look at Hanoi before saying good bye.

2 surly looking flight attendants welcomed us on board, one male (Nguyen) and female (Qoan). There was another male-female pair at the aft of the cabin ushering the passengers entering from the rear.



Christ, the pitch was very tight. This aircraft used to belong to CSA Czech Airlines (OK-YGU) according to the records but no signs of the former airline remain. The seats are upholstered in brown leather all set in a single class configuration. I observed Continental Airlines logos on the kitchen equipment in the front galley though.


Look at that baby, isn’t she cute?

1626H: Doors closed.

Nguyen came on the PA and addressed us in rapid Vietnamese before continuing without a full stop into incomprehensible English. In fact, I didn’t realize he was speaking in English until I heard “Pacific Airlines” mixed into his announcement somewhere down the line.

And off we taxi for the runway. Sister-ship BL801 would follow behind us to HCMC 30 mins later.

Engines spooled up and we taxied off for Runway 11R as the cabin lights were dimmed for take off.



1635H: There was no announcements given for the crew to prepare for take off but I guess they already knew where to be positioned at this stage. We then thundered down the runway for a northerly departure.


Credit to my dad who took this shot.

The view outside was so misty that soon, the ground was thoroughly shrouded and nothing else could be seen.



As soon as the seatbelt sign pinged off, I set my sights on other empty seats around the cabin and finally settled into 1A. That being the first row, I had all the space I wanted to stretch my legs. The cabin crew also started to prepare the carts for the buy-on-board F&B service.



My partner meanwhile also settled into his window seat across the aisle at 1F.



I bought a cup of iced tea for VND10,000 (SGD 1.00) while my partner decided to stuff his face with some more Banh Mi, a Vietnamese delicacy of “create your own sandwich” for VND 30,000. Note that you can get one along any side street hawker for VND5,000.



By 1700H, the two carts along the aisle had returned to their respective galleys and the passengers were basically left to their own devices for the duration of the flight. I never knew that a flight between Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh would take so long! Soon I was fiddling with my thumbs as boredom crept up on me again.

I figured the Banh Mi was scrumptious, even at FL 350.

Nguyen and Qoan then hid in the galley and since there were no curtains, I noticed that they shared a packet of potato chips while constantly exchanging jokes and gossips. Eventually that came to an end and Qoan just folded out the jumpseat, sat there with her arms crossed and made sucking sounds with her mouth to remove the bits of chips stuck in between her teeth. How rude!



The passenger next to me decided to turn on his cell phone and put his favorite rock song on speaker mode. I was wondering if Qoan was going to ask him to turn it off but she continued to suck on her teeth at the jumpseat. I guess the answer was “no”.



1745H: The sun began creeping below the horizon making for some beautiful scenery outside. I soon moved to seat 1F (while my partner moved to 1A) to gawk at the sun till it was no more and the pitch dark exterior held little interest for me.

1755H: The first signs of descend was felt as we nosed towards terra firma. Since the cockpit was quiet all this while, I didn’t know if we were arriving in Ho Chi Minh City, or running out of fuel. I was inclined to think positively in that aspect.



For the next 10 mins or so, there were no announcements whatsoever until Nguyen picked up the mic and asked people to go back to their seats as we were arriving (I assumed he said that) but I heard the word “toilet” in the same sentence. Hmm… was he asking those still in the toilets to finish up quickly?

Punching through the clouds, the sudden splash of ground lights was awesome. It seemed to spread into the horizon underlining the size of how huge Ho Chi Minh City really is. And the traffic… roads this far from town were bustling with vehicles in constant motion. In fact, the volume of traffic was observed to be constant even as we approached closer to the airport. A noteworthy point is that Tan Son Nhat Airport is really located within Ho Chi Minh City itself.

1808H: Finally the seatbelt signs came on and the cabin lights dimmed. Now with the interior all darkened passengers along the A and F seats had their faces plastered to the window (me included in 1F), understandably so as the view outside was stunning! The approach was like Kai Tak but without that gut wrenching 45 deg rolling-turn.

1815H: Touchdown Runway 25L

Since the winds were calm, I guess there was no need to position the aircraft in the opposite direction from where we came. Straight in and we landed smoothly with full reverse thrust. I was back in Ho Chi Minh City after a 10 month absence. I was glad to be back but I knew deep down inside, I would be missing Hanoi terribly.

The taxi to the parking bay was swift as we exited the active halfway down the runway and turned left towards the old international terminal fronted by only 2 other Vietnam Airlines A320s.



1821H: The flight officially came to an end as Nguyen came on to welcome us all to Ho Chi Minh City and apologized for the delayed departure from Hanoi.



Exit via stairs into the warm and humid night was a contrast from the cool and dry weather we came from. The Domestic Terminal is now housed in what remains of the old international terminal, which is nothing more than an empty shell. The new international terminal opened in September this year so all facilities moved there leaving an empty mass of nothing at the sad and neglected looking Domestic Terminal.



This is a continuation of my holiday in Vietnam and I was very much looking forward to the shopping part. I had advised all to save their shopping till we were here and we went crazy in the next few days shopping and buying what we could in sight till our bags were all over weight.

Part 3 to follow soon… Stay tuned.

Check-in: 3/10…
Bad customer service. I was peeved by the reply of “not airline business” and I was wondering if it was a case of bad translation? Whatever it was, the demeanor of the check in staff left much to be desired.

Boarding: 7/10…
Kudos to Pacific Airlines for maintaining an orderly process. However, much to be improved as they come into contact with more tourists. Standard of English was really bad. If this flight was anything to go by, they would have their hands full by having a plane load full of non-Vietnamese speakers, a recipe for disaster.

In-flight service: 4/10…
Fail, fail, fail. Nguyen and Qoan were anything but friendly. Honestly, they looked bored and disinterested in whatever they were doing. I am not too sure about the other pair in the aft cabin because I hardly came into contact with them. Even when they were saying their goodbyes at the door, it was “byebyebyebyebyebyebyebyebyebyebye…” but their eyes were looking at the floor, in the ceiling, outside the door, at our crotches etc… Basically everywhere but at us, their customers. Tip, next time if you want to suck at your teeth, do it in the toilet.

Arrival: 9/10…
No complaints here. Really sad looking domestic terminal that has labels “has-been” pasted all over it. Bags came out quickly and we were all collected in a group in no time.

Overall: 57.5%...
I was not expecting much when we booked our flights with Pacific Airlines many months ago. Back then, with an airline that claimed “WE FLY LOWER” we really had to prepare ourselves for whatever laid ahead. They presently have the cheapest fares domestically and they function like a LCC, unlike her more prestigious cousin VN. Since their formation, this airline was like a basket case going from nowhere to nowhere, implementing routes and cutting them again. I hope with QF’s intervention, it is a sign of better things to come.

For those who requested, here are more pictures of Hanoi.


The mausoleum of Ho Chi Minh in Ba Dinh Square.

A UNESCO Heritage protected site, the magnificent Ha Long Bay.


These dirty looking streets serve some of the best tasting Vietnamese food you can ever find.


See what I mean?


Hanoi Railway Station


Hoan Kiem lake


Old quarters.